1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a system and method for controlling a mobile terminal application using a gesture to more easily perform a command event corresponding to the gesture by a background application driven in the mobile terminal.
2. Discussion of the Background
As the demand for mobile terminals has increased, mobile terminals have been developed with a wireless Internet service function and a document composition/editing function as well as a conventional voice communication function and a simple Short Message Service (SMS) function.
These mobile terminals may include applications providing various and convenient functions such as a voice or visual communication performing application, a message transmission/reception application such as short message service (SMS) or Multimedia Messaging System (MMS), a mail client, an application exposing an idle-screen in a desktop of a mobile terminal, a photography application, a photo displaying application, a media player for playing media files, an application providing satellite/ground wave Digital Multimedia Broadcasting (DMB), a game application, and the like. Also, as third generation (3G) mobile communication services such as wireless broadband (WiBro), wideband code division multiple access (WCDMA), high speed downlink packet access (HSDPA), and the like have been commercialized, the mobile terminals may include applications such as a mobile Internet browser to provide wireless Internet services.
Thus, consumer demand has sought to concurrently run and use numerous applications included in the mobile terminal. For example, when receiving a message while listening to music through a media player, a user may execute a message transmission/reception application of the mobile terminal to check the received message without terminating the execution of the media player completely.
In this instance, the media player may be a “background application” that is executed but not displayed on a display screen of the mobile terminal, and the message transmission/reception application may be a “foreground application,” that is displayed on the screen while being executed. In this application, the term “foreground application” also specifically includes, without limitation, an idle-screen showing a desktop or desktop wallpaper of a mobile terminal.
A conventional mobile terminal may directly perform a control with respect to the foreground application. However, a conventional mobile terminal may not directly perform a control with respect to the background application. Specifically, to perform a control with respect to a media player executed as the background application in the mobile terminal, the media player must be displayed on the screen as the foreground application. In this way, a direct control may be performed in the media player through operations with respect to the mobile terminal.